


De-Stressing

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Spoilers, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 19:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10394334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: Keith is very stressed out. Pidge knows how to handle this.Set relatively close after The Blade of Marmora.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pinstripedJackalope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinstripedJackalope/gifts).



> This is a thank-you piece for the lovely human being who drew gorgeous art and wrote a minific based on Sparring Match.

_ Nope. Absolutely not. Not tonight. _

That’s what Keith’s stomach told him as he stared down the food goo in front of him, when only hours ago during training, it begged for sustenance. But now that the meal was here, there was no way in hell he was eating it.

_ Maybe it’s cause Galra don’t eat food goo...  _ the paladin thought,  _ They probably eat...I dunno, weird space mice. Am I going to have to start eating space mice? Do Allura’s mice count? _

Keith's stomach protested again, doing a somersault at the thought of eating mice. He pushed himself back from the table and scooped up the plate.

“I’m going to eat in my room.”

None of the others at the dinner table dared to stop him.

By then, word had gotten around about Keith’s experience in the Blade of Marmora’s base, how he faced knowledge or death and found knowledge that he didn’t necessarily want. Shiro told him time and time again that nothing had changed - only his knife could now become a sword. ‘They was probably speaking figuratively anyway’ he insisted, but Keith still took it hard. He isolated himself more than usual, giving him a lot of alone time to think. As exhibited at dinner, those thoughts weren’t the most comforting.

Keith immediately trashed the plate of food goo when he entered the room. He wasn’t going to eat it, and that was fact. He sat down hard on his bed, kicked off his shoes, and took out his knife. The glowing insignia that haunted his dreams glared back at him. His mind swarmed with questions.

_ Some good ‘knowledge or death’ was, _ he thought,  _ I have more questions than answers and almost died. _

A pang ran through his middle again, causing him to inhale sharply. He felt absolutely awful.  _ Is this a weird Galra thing? A-am I, like, transforming or something? No, that’s stupid. _

The more he thought, the more his stomach turned. At least, until there was a soft knock at his door. It didn’t have the same metal  _ clink _ as Shiro’s knocking, and he frankly didn’t want to see anyone else.

“Keith? It’s Pidge. Can I come in?”

Keith paused. He could handle talking to Pidge.

“Yeah.”

The Green Paladin entered, an expression on her face that Keith didn’t immediately recognize. It seemed like a cross between concern, curiosity, and a bit of professionalism. Why was she so hard to pin down sometimes?

Pidge sat next to Keith, not looking to him for an invitation. “I wanted to catch you alone. Can we talk?”

A chill went down Keith’s spine. That wasn’t the question he wanted to hear, especially when Pidge used her monotone science voice. Keith feared she wanted to start running tests on him, opening him up like a classroom frog. The imagery of him being pinned to a table and sliced open at the belly turned his face a shade paler. If there was even a slight chance of eating some food later, it was completely gone.

“Uh....sure.”

As it turned out, Pidge didn’t mention his apparent Galra blood at all. Instead, she was deeply curious about the experience in the headquarters - the space between the black holes and the star, the ideology behind ‘knowledge or death’, how they structured the suits to tap into his consciousness. She even threw in some sly comments, saying how the Blades probably could’ve chosen a better color palette than ‘dark’. But that didn’t stop Keith’s mind from wandering back to the nausea-inducing thoughts.

_ He wouldn’t’ve said ‘Galra blood runs through your veins’ unless he meant it literally, right? That’s too literal of a thing to mean anything but exactly that. But how much Galra am I? Humans and Galra can’t have kids, they’re different species! It’s like trying to breed lions and tigers! Except...ligers are a thing...oh god I’m a liger. I’m gonna get locked up in a zoo to be looked at and tested on until I die! _

“Keith....? Are you alright? You don’t look so good-”

The Red Paladin pitched forward and threw himself towards the trash can. He only just barely made it before vomit came flooding out of his mouth and painted the bin. In his peripherals, he could hear Pidge say something profane and scramble off the bed to join him on the ground. The back of his mullet and his bangs were slicked with sweat, threatening to fall into the path of his sick.

But, like always, the Green Paladin was prepared. She tugged a small elastic band from her wrist and started raking his hair back with her small fingers.

“I had long hair once,” she sighed, pulling Keith’s mullet into one piece, “I kind of liked it, but it felt good to chop it off. Gets really annoying, especially in space. I used to keep hair ties on my wrist, and I guess I never stopped.” With a few turns of her wrist, his hair was out of the danger zone and tied up neatly.

Keith didn’t mind her talking and touching his hair. It was the perfect distraction from all the badness swirling in his mind and in his stomach. When he was able to get a deep breath in, he encouraged her to keep going. “You had long hair...?”

She was happy to continue, fully aware of the distracting effect she had. She talked about the time when she wore dresses before her father and Matt went on the Kerberos Mission. She talked about how her family encouraged her affinity for science. She talked about her deeper relationships with her family before she hesitated on her mom. And eventually, Keith pulled his head up and set the trash can aside. With a quick rinse with water from his water bottle, Keith pulled himself back to the bed and put his head in his hands.

“I can’t get sick...” he muttered, “There’s so much shit to do, I can’t get sick now...”

Pidge joined him on the bed, placing a hand on his back for comfort, “I don’t think this is a bug, Keith.”

“Then what is it? I didn’t eat dinner or anything...”

“I think you’re stressed.”

Keith almost laughed out loud, “What, me? Stressed?  _ What could I ever be stressed about, Pidge?!” _

She frowned, “I’m serious, Keith. Mental stress can manifest in physical ways. You should talk to someone.”

“What, and just expose my entire life story just to get rid of a stomach ache?”

“Well...yeah! If your whole life story is stressing you out. Which it  _ is _ . You don’t even have to talk to me, you could go talk to Shiro or even the Gladiator Bot! Just someone to at least get this stuff off your chest.”

Keith didn’t respond. He expected Pidge to start yelling at him for ‘not being part of the team’ and ‘having trust issues’ and all the things he’d been told before at the Garrison. But instead, she sighed and talked softly.

“Lay down.”

That idea sounded heavenly.  _ I can do that. I can lay down. Laying down is normal, laying down is a human thing to do- Keith, you need to get your mind away from you being Galra! It’s probably a Galra thing to do too! _

His stomach complained again as he slumped down to his side. He wondered if it was truly a one-to-one ratio of stressful thought to stomach ache, or if that was just a convincing move by karma. Either way, he shoved the thoughts away and tried to focus on Pidge again.

“How is this gonna help....?” He asked, daring to close his eyes. He felt Pidge shift on the bed, and suddenly something was touching his stomach. He immediately pulled away.

_ “What are you-” _

“Relax. I’m just gonna rub your stomach a little.” Her voice stayed low and quiet, something Keith only heard on occasion.

“Pidge, I’m not a child. I don’t need my stomach rubbed.”

She went through with it anyway.

“Matt used to do it when I was sick as a kid. Mom and Dad were usually working, and he’d be home studying. We wouldn’t say anything, just curl up and he’d do this. And it’d help me feel better.”

Pidge ran her palm over Keith’s shirt, careful not to drift too high or too low. At first, Keith was skeptical. But after a few revolutions around his navel, his stomach started to calm down, and the slow, repetitive movement kept his mind occupied. He audibly sighed, shoulders dropping a few inches.

“There’s a lot to be stressed about - I’m not saying you’re wrong for being stressed,” Pidge said quietly, “But it’s just like you to bottle it all up until you can’t keep it in anymore. Literally. You need to give yourself time to vent and relax. It’s better for you in the short and long term.”

“Is that some ‘nature and technology and we’re all one’ shit the Olkari taught you...?”

“It’s not shit, it’s working on you right now. And no. My mother taught me that.”

Keith piped down. He didn’t want to step into that territory just yet.

“Are the belly rubs helping?”

“Yeah, they actually are...I didn’t expect them to...”

Pidge grinned in triumph. “Good. Keep it up, and you’ll be feeling better soon.” To Keith’s surprise, she removed her hand and stood up. She headed for the door, stopping in the frame. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

“Where are you going?”

“Well, I figured you wanted to be alone. That’s why you left in the first place. So I’m gonna leave you alone. That’s what you do.”

Keith sat up from his position, “Wait! You-....you don’t have to leave. I...actually have a lot to tell you. I have some stuff I wanna get off my chest.”


End file.
